NovaCoin prerelease premine and other issues

[tacotime]

When novacoin was posted here on the 11th, there were already 210,000+ coins mined.  Where did those go?

The details for novacoin were first posted in the russian forum on the 10th:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=114712.0

Here is the timestamp for the genesis block: 1360105017 (02 / 05 / 13 @ 4:56:57pm EST)
Here is the timestamp for the first block: 1360426882 (02 / 09 / 13 @ 10:21:22am EST)
Block 1500: 1360475877 (02 / 09 / 13 @ 11:57:57pm EST)

Reward is as follows:

Code:

nReward = 100 / (nMaxTarget / nCurrentTarget) ^ (1/6)

At block 1500 we have some 110,000 coins mined (max block reward is 100 and decreases with difficulty; at block 1500 reward is 62.580000), and it goes down with every block.  This was all mined before February 10.  Balthazar (alexhz) uploaded the source to github on the 9th and didn't appear to announce it.  In fact, binaries didn't even appear until the 10th.

Here's a post of Balthazar showing already 500+ blocks mined before release: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=114712.msg1512980#msg1512980

[1715108993]

1715108993

[1715108993]

1715108993

[FuzzyBear]

thank you for this useful information that not all will know or have the time to research well done

[Tomatocage]

Yeah screw this bootleg coin.

[smoothie]

Thanks Tacotime,

Now all those claiming there was NO PREMINE of NVC can suck a dick lol 

[wtfvanity]

Everyone always cries about how the start isn't fair, not everyone knew about the alt coin etc etc

How about, the first 5000 blocks have 1 reward in them, then at block 5000 or whatever number, then it jumps up to the 50 or whatever it's going to be? That way people can start mining pools can start, then no one cries.

I'll call this idea, fairnovacoin or fnc for short after our long departed friend fair brix.

[xorxor]

Everyone always cries about how the start isn't fair, not everyone knew about the alt coin etc etc

How about, the first 5000 blocks have 1 reward in them, then at block 5000 or whatever number, then it jumps up to the 50 or whatever it's going to be? That way people can start mining pools can start, then no one cries.

I'll call this idea, fairnovacoin or fnc for short after our long departed friend fair brix.

very nice way of starting blockchain

[Sunny King]

Difficulty started at 0.00024414 at block 1.
I would have started difficulty between 0.2 ~ 1.0 for scrypt.
Still ppcoin's continuous adjustment worked beautifully for novacoin now it's at difficulty >8, more than 4 orders of magnitude than the starting difficulty.

[PsychoticBoy]

Welcome Solidcoin 3.0

Seen it, been there, done that!

[Balthazar]

Difficulty started at 0.00024414 at block 1.
I would have started difficulty between 0.2 ~ 1.0 for scrypt.
Still ppcoin's continuous adjustment worked beautifully for novacoin now it's at difficulty >8, more than 4 orders of magnitude than the starting difficulty.

It uses ^ (1/6), to cut off reward slower, because of lower upper limit of reward. Because ^ (1/4) would be a little unfair in the case of 0.00024414 startup difficulty, I think.

[Tomatocage]

It uses ^ (1/6), to cut off reward slower, because of lower upper limit of reward. Because ^ (1/4) would be unfair in the case of 0.00024414 startup difficulty, I think.

Cool story, CoinHunter.

[DryPowder]

NVC is a good idea … but for now stink fishy.

[Balthazar]

It uses ^ (1/6), to cut off reward slower, because of lower upper limit of reward. Because ^ (1/4) would be unfair in the case of 0.00024414 startup difficulty, I think.

Cool story, CoinHunter.

If you have nothing to say, it will be better to be silent... Because such comment doesn't look too clever for "Hero Member", I think.

P.S Try to find your sweetheart CoinHunter somewhere else. 

[hanzac]

Please don't be so mean, I think NVC's nature is quite fair. Everything needs a price. Who invent the wheel should be highly rewarded. I think this is quite fair. Otherwise, why bother to create?

If you want a totally fair stuff, there's no such thing on earth. You can't ask all the other people to work with you, everyone is so busy. So always someone first come first serve.

People are selfish, this is the nature, this is also the protection for them.

Even you publicly announce the NVC, this is also not fair for most people with less computation power. Some big player can own majority of it.

Although this is a competitive world, if you relax and take a coffee, everything will be just fine.

[Sunny King]

Difficulty started at 0.00024414 at block 1.
I would have started difficulty between 0.2 ~ 1.0 for scrypt.
Still ppcoin's continuous adjustment worked beautifully for novacoin now it's at difficulty >8, more than 4 orders of magnitude than the starting difficulty.

It uses ^ (1/6), to cut off reward slower, because of lower upper limit of reward. Because ^ (1/4) would be a little unfair in the case of 0.00024414 startup difficulty, I think.

Yes, I am aware of that. Although the release could certainly be managed much better and be fairer to all interested users. But I am not going to repeat all the criticisms voiced by the community here, as I am sure you are already under enough fires.

From my point of view I actually appreciate the work you have done to provide another avenue for the ppcoin design to compete against say litecoin, currently still in a dominating market position among all altcoins. By forking from ppcoin I assume that you actually do appreciate the design and see its value. Now that you have a good stake in novacoin I hope that you would be sincere in maintaining the project for the long haul, and possibly joining the discussion of developing ppcoin project further.

[btc-e.com]

When novacoin was posted here on the 11th, there were already 210,000+ coins mined.  Where did those go?

The details for novacoin were first posted in the russian forum on the 10th:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=114712.0

Here is the timestamp for the genesis block: 1360105017 (02 / 05 / 13 @ 4:56:57pm EST)
Here is the timestamp for the first block: 1360426882 (02 / 09 / 13 @ 10:21:22am EST)
Block 1500: 1360475877 (02 / 09 / 13 @ 11:57:57pm EST)

Reward is as follows:

Code:

nReward = 100 / (nMaxTarget / nCurrentTarget) ^ (1/6)

At block 1500 we have some 110,000 coins mined (max block reward is 100 and decreases with difficulty; at block 1500 reward is 62.580000), and it goes down with every block.  This was all mined before February 10.  Balthazar (alexhz) uploaded the source to github on the 9th and didn't appear to announce it.  In fact, binaries didn't even appear until the 10th.

Here's a post of Balthazar showing already 500+ blocks mined before release: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=114712.msg1512980#msg1512980

All the coins NVC mined Balthazar (110,000 coins ) are in the guarantee fund exchange BTC-e.com

[wtfvanity]

All the coins NVC mined Balthazar (110,000 coins ) are in the guarantee fund exchange BTC-e.com

Prove it. Sign the address where they are stored.

[tacotime]

I don't recall seeing a transaction like this in the first 2000 or so blocks, but you guys can have a look later today.  I will upload the sqlite Abe dump of the blockchain in this thread soon.

[AndyRossy]

I don't recall seeing a transaction like this in the first 2000 or so blocks, but you guys can have a look later today.  I will upload the sqlite Abe dump of the blockchain in this thread soon.

Awesome, I may look at this too.  inb4 claims "Oh we just sent them the wallet".

[wtfvanity]

I don't recall seeing a transaction like this in the first 2000 or so blocks, but you guys can have a look later today.  I will upload the sqlite Abe dump of the blockchain in this thread soon.

Awesome, I may look at this too.  inb4 claims "Oh we just sent them the wallet".

Fine, sign every 100th address for the first 2000 blocks. Prove it... it's not like you can't prove ownership of coins in BTC or any alt chain.

[Sunny King]

I added an option to 'getblock' in ppcoin to dump details about transactions in it.

Code:

novacoind getblock <blockhash> true

Combine this with 'getblockhash' and a few lines of scripts shoud get you all transaction info, some more filter should be able to get you all the large transfers.

[tacotime]

Here you guys go

http://www.multiupload.nl/RPHLDYLTA9

open with sqliteman on unix

If you want to compile your own abe webserver, here are my hacks:

conf file:

Code:

datadir = [{
        "dirname": "/home/me/.novacoin",
        "chain":   "NovaCoin",
        "code3":   "NVC",
        "address_version": "\u0000" }]

datastore.py

after line 67

Code:

    {"chain":"NovaCoin",
     "code3":"NVC", "address_version":"\x37", "magic":"\xe4\xe8\xe9\xe5"},

later in the code, bypass doing hashes to make sure the merkle root is consistent (hack for litecoin/scrypt)

Code:

class InvalidBlock(Exception):
    pass
class MerkleRootMismatch(InvalidBlock):
    def __init__(ex, block_hash, tx_hashes):
        ex.block_hash = block_hash
        ex.tx_hashes = tx_hashes
    def __str__(ex):
        pass
        #return 'Block header Merkle root does not match its transactions. ' \
        #    'block hash=%s' % (ex.block_hash.encode('hex'),)

Code:

        # Verify Merkle root.
        if b['hashMerkleRoot'] != util.merkle(tx_hash_array):
            pass
            #raise MerkleRootMismatch(b['hash'], tx_hash_array)

deserialize.py

Check for nTime for all transactions, a feature that most other chains do not possess

Code:

def parse_Transaction(vds):
  d = {}
  start = vds.read_cursor
  d['version'] = vds.read_int32()
  d['nTime'] = vds.read_uint32()
  n_vin = vds.read_compact_size()
  d['txIn'] = []
  for i in xrange(n_vin):
    d['txIn'].append(parse_TxIn(vds))
  n_vout = vds.read_compact_size()
  d['txOut'] = []
  for i in xrange(n_vout):
    d['txOut'].append(parse_TxOut(vds))
  d['lockTime'] = vds.read_uint32()
  d['tx'] = vds.input[start:vds.read_cursor]
  return d
def deserialize_Transaction(d, transaction_index=None, owner_keys=None):
  result = "%d tx in, %d out\n"%(len(d['txIn']), len(d['txOut']))
  for txIn in d['txIn']:
    result += deserialize_TxIn(txIn, transaction_index) + "\n"
  for txOut in d['txOut']:
    result += deserialize_TxOut(txOut, owner_keys) + "\n"
  return result

These are kind of dirty hacks, but it runs for me

[Balthazar]

I think that you can just ask me the question.

Your answer:

Code:

80496cfa88c3cc59725b440b24b6dc4da09e31d20fa9c81c4784aac17ab9f3e0
f96e8d181df33818f5da4a5fcf5280e54fb40ffdbcbb4b40f25e91c4d6d17ca2

I can sign any your message by randomly selected input addres private key, if someone wants the proof. You can also ask btc-e support to provide signature for your text, to get a proof that they are recipients of this transactions.

[laughingbear]

yay, proof you paid them off... I feel much better about everything now  /sarcasm

[Tomatocage]

Someone needs to i0coin this fork.

[dreamwatcher]

Here you guys go

http://www.multiupload.nl/RPHLDYLTA9

open with sqliteman on unix

If you want to compile your own abe webserver, here are my hacks:

conf file:

Code:

datadir = [{
        "dirname": "/home/me/.novacoin",
        "chain":   "NovaCoin",
        "code3":   "NVC",
        "address_version": "\u0000" }]

datastore.py

after line 67

Code:

    {"chain":"NovaCoin",
     "code3":"NVC", "address_version":"\x37", "magic":"\xe4\xe8\xe9\xe5"},

You may run into a bit of a problem as NVC uses address version x08 (Dec: 08) instead of PPCoin's x37 (Dec: 55).

The rest my help me get NVC onto the cryptocoinexplorer site.  Thank You!!


 

[marhjan]

Someone needs to i0coin this fork.

ahhh...  the memories of I0coin...  I fell for that scam hard lol

[dreamwatcher]

Here you guys go

http://www.multiupload.nl/RPHLDYLTA9

open with sqliteman on unix

If you want to compile your own abe webserver, here are my hacks:

conf file:

Code:

datadir = [{
        "dirname": "/home/me/.novacoin",
        "chain":   "NovaCoin",
        "code3":   "NVC",
        "address_version": "\u0000" }]

datastore.py

after line 67

Code:

    {"chain":"NovaCoin",
     "code3":"NVC", "address_version":"\x37", "magic":"\xe4\xe8\xe9\xe5"},

You may run into a bit of a problem as NVC uses address version x08 (Dec: 08) instead of PPCoin's x37 (Dec: 55).

The rest my help me get NVC onto the cryptocoinexplorer site.  Thank You!!


 

Unfortunately, the database you provided reflects the same problems i have having getting ABE to work properly. Most of the "Hacks" you show, I have already done in a different form to get the PPC explorer going on Cryptocoinexplorer.com.

Namely the Block table rows block_total_satoshis all the way to the end block_ss_detroyed are null
-1   {null}   {null}   {null}   1   {null}
-1   {null}   {null}   {null}   1   {null}
-1   {null}   {null}   {null}   1   {null}
-1   {null}   {null}   {null}   1   {null}
-1   {null}   {null}   {null}   1   {null}

This will result in this error when served:

Code:

Abe initialized.
Listening on http://172.16.1.198:2750
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/wsgiref/handlers.py", line 85, in run
    self.result = application(self.environ, self.start_response)
  File "abe.py", line 212, in __call__
    handler(page)
  File "abe.py", line 310, in handle_chains
    100.0 - (100.0 * (ss + more) / (total_ss + more)))
ZeroDivisionError: float division by zero
172.16.1.199 - - [14/Feb/2013 13:48:17] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 500 59
172.16.1.199 - - [14/Feb/2013 13:48:27] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 200 159362

Block hashes are incorrect when compared to daemon output, but the merkle roots match ??

Anyway, I will continue to work on adding NVC to the explorer, that is unless nethead beats me to it... 

[tacotime]

Right, it reflects the difficulty in reading the blocks byte-to-byte as is I believe.  When you build the sql database it even tells you that it's truncating the data at the end.  It's not checking the merkle roots at all so of course everything checks out.  As far as I know Abe only computes the SHA256 hashes.  See:

datastore.py

Code:

            hash = util.double_sha256(
                ds.input[ds.read_cursor : ds.read_cursor + 80])

In order to verify all transactions belonging to the root you need to add a python scrypt implementation to calculate the hash here.  You can find that here: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/scrypt/0.5.4

Additionally if the hashes are of the full data in the tx you'll need to adjust the length of the data it reads between each hash, as there's extra data (nTime) in the PPC/NVC hashes

[Vitalicus]

Sunny King, you accept this rival of PPC ?

[Sunny King]

Sunny King, you accept this rival of PPC ?

I can only interpret that by choosing to fork from ppcoin Balthazar thinks the design has merits. Other than that I have no relation to novacoin and its developers, nor did they ever communicate with me about the project privately.

While I am also critical of the release management of novacoin, but if Balthazar can sustain the project and not intend to scam people then I do welcome new competition. When ppcoin was released I said it had 'same license term as Bitcoin to help advancing cryptocurrency technology', yeah even though novacoin hasn't really invented anything new but still I don't mind anybody forking ppcoin project and do whatever they want. Yes forks from ppcoin are preferred over forks of bitcoin to me Although please don't take my position as if I approve of these forks and always be aware of the risks involved.